Wilmington, Delaware chemicals giant E I du Pont de Nemours & Co Inc’s Du Pont Pixel Systems has announced its second generation of SBus boards, GLengine-24XP and GLengine-48XP, which, it claims, double the performance of its Sparc-based PX/IRIS GL three dimensional library. The boards enable users to transfer three dimensional applications from a Silicon Graphics […]

Wilmington, Delaware chemicals giant E I du Pont de Nemours & Co Inc’s Du Pont Pixel Systems has announced its second generation of SBus boards, GLengine-24XP and GLengine-48XP, which, it claims, double the performance of its Sparc-based PX/IRIS GL three dimensional library. The boards enable users to transfer three dimensional applications from a Silicon Graphics Inc workstation to a Sun Microsystems Inc machine without compromising speed or quality. They also provide developers with colour 24-bit graphics, a four-bit overlay and double buffering in a dual slot SBus format that plugs directly into their Sparcstations. Moreover, the GLengines accelerate the X Window System to ensure that windowing performance does not deteriorate when customers use three dimensional graphics. They are compatible with Sun’s Solaris Visual architecture and run all standard Sun applications. Prices start at $5,500 or UKP4,700 and shipment will start this month. Meanwhile, Sun has said it will help Du Pont Pixel convert a Sparc-optimised version of Silicon Graphics’ freely licensed OpenGL application programming interface for Sun’s Sparcstation ZX and Sparcstation 10ZX. The aim is to exploit the three dimensional graphics accelerator – a dual slot SBus board – incorporated in the machines to speed up computer-aided design and other graphics applications. First fruits of the new agreement are expected to appear next quarter.